Today, regional wireless provider U.S. Cellular announced the availability of a new, mid-range, Android smartphone, the LG Apex. The Apex, which will hit sales channels on the 19th of November, sports a 3.2-inch touchscreen display, full-QWERTY slide-out keyboard, 3 megapixel camera, and Android 2.1. The device will retail for $79.99 with a signed two-year contract and $80 mail-in rebate. Hit the jump for the full press release. More →

One of our trusty ninjas just hit us up with a couple details on some of Verizon’s upcoming products and product offerings. First off.. Netbooks. We’ve been told that Verizon Wireless will 100% start selling Netbooks in stores around May of this year. The first one looks to be a 10-inch HP Mini which should go for $99 on a 2-year agreement (with BroadbandAccess plan). On a related note, we’ve been told that AT&T is in the process of setting this up as well (selling Netbooks in stores).

The hate-it-or-love-it Verizon Hub home phone will be getting an upgrade to enable streaming radio on or around February 22nd.

There’s a new feature for Verizon Wireless subscribers rolling out called Media Manager. What we’re told this does is enable you to backup all your ringtones, games, and phone content to one location for free as long as you use the My Account feature online. Basically think of it as a free backup assistant, rumored to be rolling out momentarily.

The BlackBerry Apex (BlackBerry 8230) we’re told was removed from Verizon’s data devices road map. Our contact doesn’t know why or what it possibly means, but he said it either means it is coming very soon (likely) or not being released at all (unlikely).

Finally, the BlackBerry Niagara. We showed you the first photo of it, and it turns out it is pretty much spot on. We do have some more information, however. You can definitely think of it as a cross between the Bold and the Curve 8900. It’s bigger than the Curve, but smaller than the Bold. It has the same 480×320 screen resolution as the bold, and thankfully we’re told rocks the same processor as well (624MHz CPU). Lastly, it runs the 4.6 OS but you didn’t really need us to tell you that. In terms of release date, you’re going to be a little disappointed — we don’t have one. We were originally told by our original tipster that the Niagara would launch in May of ’09 on Verizon, and darn it, that looks pretty accurate. When we have something confirmed, we’ll obviously share that news. Below is a recap of the information we reported on the Niagara when we broke the news:

Continuing our Stormness today, we’re breaking out these great internal marketing and product positioning points. What you’re going to see isn’t for the faint of heart — there’s a ton of data points in here. RIM even goes as far to compare the Storm (or Thunder as they referred to it internally) to the iPhone, Nokia N95, and LG Viewty. We’ve got full price points on where the Storm sits in between the other devices, and we even have a couple exclusives for you… How does a BlackBerry Niaraga with Wi-Fi sound for Verizon? Yep, the device we broke the news on will have Wi-Fi for all your Verizon-lovers. Finally, how does a CDMA Kickstart sound? It’s codenamed the BlackBerry Apex and it will indeed be hitting Verizon as well. Release not yet known. Click through for practically all the inside RIM info you can handle!